Marsha Hollingsworth 

Clarity

As elusive as the Pleiades on a moonless
night, the sky flawless and still
you have to look away to glimpse
the truth illuminating the periphery.

Brief, lucid moments accumulate
like pollen from the old cedar leaning
to the silver shore, the fleeting light.

Storms, born on remote continents,
march over the hissing sea in wave
after wave of cloying despair.

Now is the time for clarity:

something inside us must
shift and open.

Marsha Hollingsworth 

When Expectations Meet Reality

You are too accommodating,
it’s like there's a sign on your forehead
I AM RIPE FOR THE PICKING

helpfulness; a transmuted sign
of weakness, small advantages taken,

leaving you
unmoored, wondering
why you even care.